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Phase Technology Introduces dARTS Digital Audio Reference Theater System Featuring All-Digital Active Electronics (26/9/2005)

Major Breakthrough in Performance as Speaker Manufacturer Unveils Home Theater Audio System Featuring All-Digital Active Electronics

Phase Technology, the leader in speaker design and engineering is releasing its breakthrough dARTS Digital Audio Reference Theater System. This innovative system incorporates a wide range of custom designed and purpose built speakers that utilize specially designed digital amplification, crossovers, and processing to immerse listeners in a cinematic experience far beyond what conventional audio systems can achieve. One of many unique features is the availability of speakers as systems or as interchangeable components to meet the most demanding of installation environments. The dARTS comes in five-, six-, and seven-channel configurations with one or two subwoofers, and includes a 16-channel all-digital DP2000 amplifier.

"Our dARTS Digital Audio Reference Theater System takes audio realism to the next level," said Ken Hecht, president of Phase Technology. "By using full digital amplification and purpose-built crossovers, dARTS speakers can be matched to one another to incredibly fine tolerances. And with our custom calibration software, installers can easily contour individual system performance to produce the best balance and frequency response for the room in which it's installed. This is a truly one-of-a-kind system that takes the listening room's acoustical anomalies out of the equation, letting listeners enjoy the pure movie sound effects and music that the artists intended."

At the heart of the system is the Audyssey MultEQ XT system, a digital signal processor with calibration software designed in collaboration with Audyssey Laboratories in Los Angeles, a spin-off of the University of Southern California's Immersive Audio Lab, which was founded in 1996 by Tomlinson Holman (inventor of THX and Professor of Film Sound at USC) and Chris Kyriakakis (a Professor in the USC Viterbi School of Engineering).

Additionally, the Phase Technology DP-2000 Digital Amplifier was custom-designed and tailored for our speakers in collaboration with D2Audio. The amplifier offers sixteen channels of power, with up to 250 watts per channel, for complete flexibility in biamping or triamping each speaker. Volume levels to balance drivers within a speaker are adjustable to within incredible small tolerances (+/- 0.1dB) for a perfect blend. The crossover parameters for each driver can be precisely specified, so that each driver works only in its most linear range.

The front speakers feature two 6-1/2" woofers and a 1" variable-axis soft dome tweeter, while the rear surrounds each use a pair of 5-1/4" woofers and two 1" tweeters in a dipole/bipole switchable configuration. The center channel has the same tweeter placed between two 6-1/2" woofers. Low frequencies are delivered via a 500 watt, dual-10" ultra long-throw subwoofer. Each speaker will be available in any of the three versions-Custom Built-In, full cosmetic wood/aluminum, and in-wall-to let installers customize not only dARTS's sound but its look for any project.

The dARTS calibration software, included with the system, leads installers through determining a room's acoustic signature, using a microphone to record audio response at various listening positions throughout the room and loading the measurements into the DP2000 amplifier. The amp then uses the response data to develop a room correction curve and provide the ideal performance parameters to each speaker.

Phase Technology's Digital Audio Reference Theater System continues the company's long-standing tradition of excellence through innovation. While the system introduces cutting-edge electronics, each speaker uses the proven drivers, high-quality enclosures, and hand-crafted care upon which Phase Technology built its 50-year legacy of leadership.

www.phasetech.com